


The Price of Prejudice

by Carrie_Poppins



Category: BNA: Brand New Animal (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Beastman Hunters, Drama, F/M, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, PTSD Kagemori Michiru, PTSD Ogami Shirou, Panic Attacks, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Torture, non-sexual nudity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:48:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25431127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrie_Poppins/pseuds/Carrie_Poppins
Summary: Shirou didn’t know what he had been expecting when she decided to reveal the truth to everyone. He’d always feared this possibility, ever since the very start of his journey with Kagemori Michiru.So why was it that, now that it had actually happened, it completely blindsided him?When Michiru is kidnapped by the anti-beastman front, Ogami Shirou leaps headlong to confront the terrorists--as well as feelings that he’s been struggling to ignore.
Relationships: Hiwatashi Nazuna & Kagemori Michiru, Hiwatashi Nazuna & Ogami Shirou, Kagemori Michiru & Barbara Rose, Kagemori Michiru & Ogami Shirou, Kagemori Michiru & Pinga, Kagemori Michiru and Kagemori Michiru's Parents, Kagemori Michiru/Ogami Shirou, Ogami Shirou & Barbara Rose, Ogami Shirou & Pinga, Ogami Shirou & Tachiki Yuji
Comments: 161
Kudos: 330





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> We know how the beastmen reacted to finding out there are animalized humans, but we never did see how humans reacted. This is my unfortunate take on the idea. It's fairly short, so I'm gonna post every three days. I hope y'all like it!

“Hey, Oikawa! Where’s my katana?!”

“Shut up and get in here, Kurata! You need to see this!”

“See what?” the burly man grumbled as he walked into the front room. 

_ “-of Anima-City has requested that a press conference be held to explain the circumstances of the strange events that affected the Beastman Special Zone a few weeks ago. In preparation for the event, a startling announcement was made: two of the key players in resolving the incident were in fact human. _

_ “Kagemori Michiru and Hiwatashi Nazuna were high school friends when both were caught in a car accident. During their treatment, a mistake was made and the two were infused with an experimental drug created by Sylvasta Pharmaceutical that transformed both girls into beastmen.” _

_ “‘I know that it seems strange,’” _ a beastman with teal hair and brown facial markings was saying with a bright smile.

“Hey, isn’t that-?!”

“Shhh!!”

_ “‘-I was terrified, but now I’ve really come to love Anima-City.’” _

_ “‘There are rumors that a drug has been produced that could turn you back. Will you ever take that opportunity?’” _ the interviewer prompted.

_ “‘At the start of all this, I would’ve used it in a heartbeat. But now? I like myself, the way I am now. I like the friendships I’ve made and the life I’ve built. I wouldn’t change what happened for the world.’ _

_ “Mayor Barbara Rose has announced that Kagemori Michiru will be participating on the panel for the press conference, in the hope that she can help humans and beastmen alike understand one another. She has high hopes that Kagemori Michiru’s experience will help beastmen and humans alike to reach ‘a new level of peace and mutual understanding’.” _

The TV turned off with a click as those gathered in the room exchanged grim looks. 

“Well,” one of them growled what everyone else was thinking, “it sounds like the war against the beastmen has just escalated.”


	2. Meteor Strike

_“It’s Kagemori Michiru’s famous gorilla swing!! It’s going, going, going…!! It’s a homerun!! With that, the Bears take the ninth inning and win the game!!!”_

Michiru laughed in exhilaration as she slid to homebase. The rest of the Bears screamed in delight as they rushed to tackle her, Jackie foremost among them. “You did it!! You did it you did it you did it Michiru~!!!” the little bear squealed.

_“We_ did it,” the tanuki beastman corrected her, still giggling breathlessly. “You all did great, you guys!”

“Nice run, kid,” Coach Dante nodded approvingly at the back of the mob. Michiru grinned back at him. Their coach had really stepped up this season, organizing practices before the baseball season had even started, teaching the other Bears strategies, arranging signals, and having her help train Racoon Arai in pitching so that they’d have a backup if necessary. His form was honestly already pretty good, he just needed to work on his force and his confidence. It was a lot more fun to play baseball with a team that could really back her up instead of having to carry the entire game herself. Didn’t change the fact that she was still the de facto team captain, but it was an improvement over last year. She was still riding on the high as she made her way back towards the Beastman Co-op, practically skipping down the street. 

“Good afternoon Miss Michiru!”

“Afternoon!”

“That was such an exciting game! I wish I could’ve seen it in person, but the radio is almost as good!”

“Thank you!” Michiru laughed, waving to another beastman as they passed on their congratulations. With the creation of the Nirvasyl Serum and Nazuna’s exposure as a human, Michiru had been forced to come clean as well. It had gone over a lot better for her than it had for her friend, though. As Jackie put it, “You may have been human once, but you’re one of us, now!” She still didn’t know if that view was generally held among the beastmen of Anima-City due to her role in creating the Nirvasyl Serum, protecting beastmen from being turned into humans, or just her fame as Anima-City’s star athlete, but she was grateful all the same. Michiru loved living here. She loved working with Mayor Rose and playing baseball with the Bears and living with Mr. Jem and Mrs. Melissa and spending time with Shirou. 

Especially spending time with Shirou. A little heat rose to her cheeks at the thought. 

She’d finally admitted to herself that she liked him about a month earlier. To be honest, the realization had caught her completely off guard on the rooftop one afternoon, when her basketball got away from her and he caught it before it could fly into the street. 

_“Careful, you klutz,”_ he’d smirked, tossing it back to her. _“You don’t wanna lose that.”_

 _“Says the guy that regularly falls off of skyscrapers,”_ Michiru had countered with a grin.

_“It doesn’t count if it’s on purpose. And for the record, it’s usually been because_ you _got sloppy and_ I’ve _had to rescue you, remember?”_ There had followed an odd pause before Shirou cocked his head to one side, almost puppy-like in his curiosity. _“What’s wrong?”_

_“Nothing! I just… You… I don’t think you’ve teased me back like that before…”_

_“Is that a bad thing?”_

_“N-No! No, not at all! I just, um, I think Mrs. Melissa needs me; bye!”_

Michiru cringed a bit at the memory. That had been _so_ awkward, but something about his playful grin accompanied by the light-hearted teasing had made him seem so _young,_ nothing at all like the thousand-year-old-basically-a-god that she knew him to be. That, combined with her knowledge of his kindness and care for others… Well, suffice it to say that a quick escape had been very much in order, before she made an even bigger fool of herself.

“I wonder where he is now,” Michiru murmured to herself as she took the shortcut through a quiet alleyway. “Probably City Hall or some mission from the mayor. I shouldn’t worry about him, though. If he needs help, he’ll send Kuro to come find-”

She wasn’t certain what instinct made her stiffen and turn, whether it was something she’d gained over months of working on dangerous assignments with Shirou or some kind of animal instinct obtained with her first transformation into a beastman. All she knew as the claws closed over her shoulders and pierced her skin was that it had alerted her too late to be of any use. With a sharp yelp of pain, she was dragged into the air.

“What the heck?! Who are you; let go of me!!” she cried, struggling wildly and lashing out blindly with her gorilla arm, grimacing as the transformation drove the claws deeper into her skin. Just for a moment, she thought it might have worked, as her captor’s grip seemed to loosen on one side.

Then she felt a slight prick against her neck, and before she knew it, her world went black.

.oOo.

Shirou growled in frustration over yet another lost lead. The mayor had called him that morning with urgent news: Meteor had been spotted en route towards Anima-City. Shirou had to find him before he attacked his target, but the sky had always been his weakness--he couldn’t follow a scent trail that didn’t stick. The biggest challenge was that they had no idea who his target was, so the wolf beastman was forced to resort to wandering the city and trying to keep his eyes open for any sign of the assassin. It was both an unreliable method and a risky one, seeing as he had no way of knowing when the falcon beastman would-

Shirou startled a little as his phone buzzed in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out, read Tachiki’s name and pressed the accept button. “This is Ogami,” he greeted briefly.

_“Ogami, get down to the station. We’ve learned Meteor’s target.”_

“Who is it?” Shirou replied instantly, prepared to race to wherever he was needed in an instant.

_“…It was Kagemori Michiru.”_

Shirou froze, his heart skipping at least three beats and very nearly dropping his phone in his shock. Michiru… Michiru was… “Wait. What do you mean _was?”_ he demanded, forcing himself to move, sprinting towards the police station.

_“Meteor has already made his move-”_

“You’re not saying-!”

_“No, she’s not dead. It seems that she’s been captured. We have security footage of him carrying her off somewhere.”_

“Where is she?!”

_“We don’t know. We’re still analyzing the footage.”_

“I’ll be there in two minutes.”

The wolf beastman quickly shoved his phone back in his pocket and redoubled his pace, forcefully controlling his breathing as he went. He had to keep his head if he wanted to save her. Honestly, Shirou didn’t know what he had been expecting when she decided to reveal the truth to everyone. He’d always feared this possibility, ever since the very start of his journey with Kagemori Michiru. 

So why was it that, now that it had actually happened, it completely blindsided him?

Chief Tachiki jumped as the wolf beastman stormed into the police station, fangs bared even in his human form. “Oga-”

“Fill me in,” Shirou cut him off, barely withholding a snarl as he marched to his side and leaned over the computer the hound beastman had been examining. The image on the screen was from a security camera that had been lucky enough to film Meteor clutching a familiar, limp figure in his talons as he fled the city limits at a startling pace. 

_That bastard!!_

“Ogami, calm down,” Tachiki murmured nervously, his paw-like hand hovering over Shirou’s shoulder. The wolf forced himself to breathe again, closing his eyes briefly and leaning away, the furious growl in his chest subsiding to a low rumble. The chief nodded and continued, “From the look of things, he was taking her to the mainland. It’s doubtful that he killed her considering that he bothered to carry her off at all, but we don’t know who he was working for.”

“It’s the anti-beastman rights front.”

“What makes you so certain?”

Shirou’s expression was grim as he turned away. “Michiru just went public with the details of her ‘beastman-itis’, remember? It didn’t cause as much of an uproar here as Hiwatashi Nazuna’s little ‘confession’ during the Nirvasyl Syndrome incident, in part because she isn’t as much of a public figure, and in part because most of the beastmen in Anima-City still see Michiru as one of us. Originally human or not, she’s worked to understand us and really embraced our culture. But that makes her even more of a threat to those humans that continue to insist that beastmen are monsters. She and Mayor Rose were in the process of preparing a press conference to answer questions from beastmen and humans alike following the announcement. They likely were trying to prevent that from happening.

“We need to contact Hiwatashi Nazuna. She was mentioned in the news report as well, so she may also be a target, and if she is, then it may just give us a chance to take down Meteor and potentially discover where he took Michiru.”

“Where are you going?” Tachiki called.

“City Hall. I need to inform the mayor that I’ll be leaving the city for awhile.”

“To find Miss Michiru? You know that you don’t have the same investigative authority outside of Anima-City.”

“I don’t care!” Shirou snapped, a snarl entering his voice again. “I’m going to find her, no matter what it takes!”

“Ogami…”

All of the people that passed him on his way to the municipal office gave him a wide berth. He couldn’t really blame them. Beastmen always had a way of sensing when one of their fellows was in a poor mood, and ‘poor’ was a _very mild_ descriptor for how he felt in that moment. Another rumble started in his chest as he broke into a run, leaping to the rooftops to avoid getting caught in any foot traffic. Before long, the rumble had built into a full snarl. The only reason it wasn’t a howl was because howling would slow him down and there was no time to waste because Michiru was gone.

Michiru. was. _gone!!!_

That knowledge ate at him in a way that he hadn’t experienced since the aftermath of the Battle of Nirvasyl, when he first realized that his entire clan had been destroyed. Yes, he was supposed to protect all beastmen. Yes, he _fought_ to protect all beastmen, but this… this was different. This was different because it wasn’t _all beastmen_ it was _Michiru,_ the girl that had, for better or worse, somehow managed to worm her way into his life in a way that no one else had. Sure, he cared about Mayor Rose and even Jem and Melissa, but they were all people that _he_ had chosen, people with skillsets that he could use and personalities that he could stand. But Michiru… 

_Michiru_ had chosen _him._

She had come to Anima-City as a complete and total stranger, someone who knew nothing about beastmen or their culture or beliefs, and yet she had _chosen_ to stay, even after she gained the ability to return home. She _chose_ to learn, to reach out to her fellow beastmen, to reach out to _him,_ despite his repeated efforts to push her away or not let himself get too invested, and before he knew it, there was a sizeable portion of his heart reserved solely for her. She was more than just a coworker, or a neighbor, or even a friend. She was his pack now, his family. 

And a wolf would always defend its own.


	3. Caged Animal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS: Non-sexual nudity, physical abuse, torture, non-consensual drug use/needles.
> 
> I apologize in advance for what I'm about to put Michiru through.

Her head was pounding. That was the first thing Michiru became aware of. The second thing was the weird _something_ digging into the side of her neck. Third was that she was obscenely cold. All worrying in their own right, but the most concerning thing of all was that, for the life of her, she _couldn’t move._ Confused and panicked, Michiru felt like she was straining against her own body, her breathing and heartbeat quickening in her frantic effort even to twitch her fingers. 

_What happened to me?!_

She tried to calm down. She couldn’t move, so she concentrated on breathing. Her lungs didn’t even seem to be working right, but if she focused on taking shallow breaths and making them consistent, dragging in a little bit more air with each gasp, she could control her panic. Slowly, she began to feel some involuntary motion in her body: her nose and ears twitching with sounds, smells, and faint drafts circulating around the room. Then, finally, she managed to start moving of her own will, her fingers curling into fists and her eyes slowly cracking open. 

Her eyes instinctively snapped back shut, a quiet groan rattling in her throat as the too-bright light in the room seemed to pierce her brain, increasing the throbbing in her head ten-fold. Michiru forced her eyes open a little bit more cautiously the next time, acclimating herself to the light before she tried to take in her surroundings, or as much as she could while still being unable to move. 

The first thing that she was made acutely aware of was that she appeared to be in a _cage._ It took a lot of effort not to devolve into another wave of panic, but she managed to keep her breathing regular even as her heart rate kicked up into third gear. Her eyes continued to rove, and heat flushed her cheeks as she realized why she felt so cold.

Michiru was completely naked, stripped of clothing and dignity, unable even to move her arms to cover her chest. Not that she didn’t try, because she most certainly did, but the best she could manage was a muscle spasm in one arm. She couldn’t even transform; it was like there was some kind of block on her power. 

The creak of a hinge sent an involuntary twitch through her shoulders as Michiru dragged her eyes upward, her heart skipping at least one beat as she attempted to identify her captors. She couldn’t really see much, though, not even if they were male or female. All that she knew was that the sharp squeal of a metal door sent her cringing and then two people were standing over her, their faces obscured by the too-bright light behind them, and judging by their scent, they were human, not beastmen.

“So you’re awake?” a woman sneered. It was difficult to guess how old she was, but she certainly didn’t sound pleasant. “Good. This wouldn’t be any _fun_ if you had already died, _tanuki.”_

Michiru’s breath hitched, her heart stuttering. Shirou called her tanuki girl or some variation of it eight times out of ten, but this voice sounded vastly different from his. Anymore, when he called her ‘tanuki girl’ it was a term of endearment--a light, teasing reminder that she still had things to learn as a beastman and as a citizen of Anima-City. _This_ voice was derisive, spitting out the word ‘tanuki’ like an insult, or even a curse. 

And, suddenly, she understood.

“Y-You… you’re… the anti-beast… men… right?” she managed to gasp, her voice weak and trembling and so breathy that she was hardly comprehensible. What had these monsters _done_ to her?!

“Shut your mouth, bitch!” a man’s voice snapped, just before a kick slammed into her stomach. Michiru grunted in pain then choked on bile, her limp body unprepared for a blow of such force and her lack of mobility leaving her barely able to cough the substance away from her lungs. “Lowly beasts that have already cast aside their humanity don’t deserve the _right_ to speak!”

“Easy there,” the woman smirked, and Michiru’s ears twitched at the sound of rustling cloth. “There are much more _appropriate_ ways to punish _animals.”_

Michiru suddenly went rigid, a sharp buzzing sensation zipping through her entire body and her jaw clenching before it suddenly stopped and left her gasping for breath, eyes wide in confusion and fear. “Wh-?” Another jolt of pain flew through her body, a longer one, and again Michiru found herself barely able to breathe, tears now streaming from her eyes and trailing over the bridge of her nose as she stared at her captors with wide, horrified eyes.

“I do hope you’re a quick learner,” the woman practically purred, “or you’re just going to keep getting electrocuted.”

“Ele- Ngh!!” Michiru was left coughing weakly as the next electric shock faded. _So they electrocute me whenever I try to speak?_

“Well? Aren’t ya gonna say something?” Michiru grit her teeth and held her silence, glaring at the two of them. “Oh. So you _are_ a quick learner,” the woman groaned. 

“Quit bearing your fangs at us you _beast,”_ the man snarled, and Michiru grunted as another kick struck her torso. This time, he managed to hit her hard enough that she full-on vomited, coughing and choking as she was knocked back across the cage floor, thrown more onto her back, her arm twisted uncomfortably underneath her. _So that’s what they want. They want to treat me like an animal, naked and trapped in a cage with an electric shock collar to keep me from speaking._

“Well anyway,” the woman sighed, stepping forward and pulling something else out of her pocket, “we can’t have you die just yet, not until we have your friend.”

“My-? Ngh!!”

“Oho! Not so fast a learner after all!” the man spat, laughing. “We can’t leave any traitors to humankind left alive, you see. We need to make an example of you to anyone else that decides they wanna try the beast life.”

_Traitors, plural? Then… Nazuna?!_

Michiru didn’t have much time to think about it, because suddenly the woman had grabbed her arm and yanked it towards her, holding up her other hand to reveal a long syringe with a wickedly large needle. The young beastman’s eyes blew wide with fear as she tried to pull away, but her muscles were still largely unresponsive. The woman maintained her grip with ease, smacking her across the face as she continued trying to pull away. “Stupid beast. Don’t you know animals have to take their shots?” she sneered cruelly, sticking the needle in Michiru’s arm and pressing the plunger. 

Michiru grimaced at the bizarre cold sensation as whatever drug they were injecting entered her system, but at least the woman pulled away the moment it was over, still smiling maliciously. “That should keep you from transforming. We need to keep a close leash on our pets, you know? Anyway, we’ll leave your water dish here for you, _tanuki._ Whenever you can move again, you can drink. Even _animals_ can handle that for themselves.”

Cold laughter followed her two captors out of the room while Michiru fought off another panic attack. So she couldn't change because they were drugging her? Is that why she couldn’t move, either? Would the movement drug wear off, or was it the anti-transformation drug itself keeping her from moving? And the shock collar, could it be removed?

Slowly, _painfully,_ Michiru began to raise her hands to her throat, forcing her stiff fingers to pick at the collar buckled there. Only, the moment she began to pull it loose, the biggest shock yet lanced through her body, eliciting a scream from her throat even as her body lurched and then locked. By the time it ended, it was all Michiru could do to curl herself into a tight, protective little ball even as her muscles continued to spasm and a taste like ozone covered her tongue. 

_Don't cry,_ she begged herself mentally, clenching her eyes shut against the tears clogging up her throat. She didn't know if anyone was watching her or not to electrocute her every time she said something, but if there was, she didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing how much pain she was in. 

_I have to get out of here._


	4. Foxtrot

It had already been three days since Michiru was taken, and in spite of all of his efforts to keep calm, Shirou was getting increasingly agitated. There was no information, no leads, no  _ nothing,  _ not even a ransom note or a threatening statement that he could analyze for its scent or a digital message that the mayor could trace the signal of.  _ Anything  _ could be happening to Michiru, but all he could do was stand around and wait!

Well, wait and desperately hope that this plan of theirs would work.

“Mr. Ogami?”

The voice was quiet, almost too quiet to notice over the chanting of the crowd beyond the curtain leading out to the stage. Still, with his enhanced senses as a wolf, Shirou’s eyes still flicked briefly to the pink-haired fox beastman standing beside him. “What,” Shirou grunted before his eyes flicked upwards once more, scanning the skies over the stadium while Kuro fluttered his wings from his perch on his shoulder. He couldn’t smell the falcon assassin anywhere, but all that meant was that he wasn’t in the stands themselves. He could easily still be in the sky, watching for the right opportunity to strike. 

Such as when Hiwatashi was flying above the crowd, fully exposed to an aerial attack.

“Um,” the ‘pop idol’ mumbled, her voice laced with uncertainty, “Is… Is Michiru going to be okay?”

The wolf beastman blinked, turning to focus on the girl. She was wearing a simple, light blue dress with an open back to allow her to create those wings she was now so famous for. She held her microphone in her lap, wringing it with both hands as she chewed her lip, fingers lacing and unlacing, an anxious scent rising from her carefully-groomed fur as she blinked back a few stray tears, the crease of her eyebrows almost plaintive.

Of course. He’d almost forgotten that the fox girl had known Michiru for most of their childhood. Of course she would be worried about her. “Yes. She will,” Shirou replied, firmly stamping down on his own fears while he was at it. 

“How do you know that?”

“Because I am going to find her.”

Hiwatashi stared at him for a long moment, then relaxed faintly, a small smile curling her mouth as her clenched fists loosened. “Okay. I trust you.”

Shirou blinked, surprised by that admission, but he nodded just the same. “You know the plan?” 

“Yes, and I’m prepared for my part. I’m counting on you, Mr. Ogami.”

“Right.”

Shirou checked the scents through the stadium one last time before stepping back to let her stage crew come forward and fuss with last-minute makeup details before sending her out to face the crowd. There was a larger number of humans in the audience than he was accustomed to, but that wasn’t shocking considering this concert was outside of Anima-City, and anyway he didn’t sense anything inherently dangerous among them. Still, they had brought in more guards than Hiwatashi would usually have for a simple concert, just in case. So, she should be fine with just her usual security detail while he got in position. 

_ Still… _

“Kuro, stay close to Hiwatashi,” he ordered the crow quietly. “If anything happens, alert me immediately.” The bird chirped in understanding, then launched off of his shoulder, landing instead on a spare stage lamp positioned just behind Hiwatashi’s retinue. Shirou nodded once, then set off to get to his position at the top of the stadium, where he could strike at Meteor the moment he showed up. There, he slipped in his earpiece and turned it on. “Pingua. You copy?”

_ “Loud and clear, Ogami,” _ came the reply.  _ “There’s no sign of our quarry as of yet, but I won’t let down my guard.” _

__ “Understood,” Shirou acknowledged. Then, after a moment, “Thank you. For coming to help.”

_ “Heh. Don’t worry about it. I owe the kid, remember?” _

The wolf beastman allowed himself a small smile as he hunkered down, watching the lights dim in preparation for Hiwatashi’s appearance on stage. Mayor Rose had finally gotten graves dug and dedicated for Pingua’s friends. She’d made an entire military-style service out of it, invited the albatross to come speak and had even gotten flags for each of the various countries the fallen beastmen had represented. He and Michiru had attended together, and he’d even participated in sprinkling dirt over each of their graves as they were symbolically buried. It meant a lot, for Pingua to return the favor now. Shirou hadn’t even had to say anything. The day after Michiru’s disappearance was made public, he’d arrived at Anima-City and practically demanded to be included in the search for her. Considering his loyalty to Michiru, coupled with his military background and his experience with fighting anti-beastmen front extremists, Shirou had welcomed his help.

Cheers momentarily erupted as music began to spill through the speakers, then died into hushed wonder as Hiwatashi made her usual dramatic arrival onstage with her massive white wings flared and a brilliant smile on her face. Honestly, one would never think that this was the same girl that had nearly cried before him backstage as she sang for the audience, milking the performance. Shirou couldn’t help but huff at the sight, suddenly understanding the way she had interacted with her followers back when she’d been pretending to be the Silver Wolf. Hiwatashi was a diva, through and through--Michiru really had been right about her enjoying attention.

Shirou sighed, closing his eyes briefly.  _ Don’t think about her. _ If he wanted to save Michiru, then he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted now.

The first song ended and Hiwatashi landed on the stage to greet the audience and say a few words before continuing. Honestly, Shirou kind of tuned her out in favor of scanning the skies until he heard a familiar name.

_ “-mori Michiru is missing. Michiru was my best friend growing up, so I chose this next song in honor of her. It was one that we always used to listen to together. So Michiru? If you’re out there, I hope you hear this and know that we haven’t given up on you!” _

A roar of support followed Hiwatashi’s dramatic pronouncement. Shirou’s first instinct was to roll his eyes, but honestly he was still touched when the music started. He knew this song; Michiru had shown it to him, citing it as her favorite. She’d even sung along for him to prove that she knew all the words. He’d liked hearing her sing. She wasn’t perfect, but her singing voice was just as lively as she was--bright and joyful.

__ Hiwatashi swooped over the stands, much to the delight of her audience. Eventually, she landed on the opposite side of the stadium and slipped backstage so that she could change costumes. It reminded him of her disastrous concert on the night of the Nyrvasil Incident in Anima-City, the day Michiru saved him.

The day she pleaded with him to open up to her and chose to trust him, even when he had been prepared to kill her best friend.

_ Stop getting distracted, Ogami!  _ he reminded himself, shaking his head slightly and focusing on the place where the girl had disappeared, just in time to see a small black shadow zip out of the entrance in a frantic flight path towards him.

_ Kuro. _

Muttering a low curse, Shirou leaped the railing of his hiding place and dashed past a startled groupie, morphing into his wolf form as he sprinted backstage. He breathed in the scents around him, following the trails and reading their story in an instant. 

_ “Ogami, what’s happening? Why did you leave your post?”  _ Pingua’s voice crackled in his ear.

“Someone attacked Hiwatashi backstage; I’m on my way there! Keep patrolling the sky just in case Meteor arrives as backup!”

_ “Understood. I will alert the rest of security. Hurry, Ogami!” _

Shirou didn’t need Pingua to tell him that. He could already tell from the scent trails that Hiwatashi had stopped struggling, going limp in the grasp of her assailant. Still, even a young girl’s dead weight was nothing to sneeze at, and whoever had attacked her was doubly slowed down by the need to be stealthy on their way out of the stadium. For a beastman with Shirou’s strength and speed, it was a small matter to catch up to them. 

“Hold it!” the wolf beastman roared in fury as he rounded the corner towards them. A human dressed in a security guard’s uniform jumped in shock, hesitating a vital second before dropping Hiwatashi’s limp body and seizing the gun on his belt, snapping it up towards Shirou with a grimace and getting off three shots--all of which missed--before the wolf was on him, tackling him to the ground and wrenching his arms behind his back, using the man’s own handcuffs to keep them there.

“Get off of me, you monster!” the man shouted as he struggled in Shirou’s unrelenting grip.

_̶͏"Ş̛c̛u̸̵̸m̨,͝͝”_ Shirou snarled, his fury rumbling in his chest, his vision tinting momentarily red. The man blanched, but his eyes were still defiant as he glared over his shoulder. “You kidnap an innocent young woman and try to do the same to another yet you have the nerve to call _me_ the monster?” 

“They’re traitors to their kind! They don’t  _ deserve _ to be treated like people any longer, now that they’ve chosen to join the monsters!” 

Shirou growled warningly, thoroughly tempted to bite the man’s head off for implying that Michiru could ever be considered anything less than a saint, but he needed the bastard alive to save her, so he refrained. He was actually kind of grateful when Hiwatashi’s low moan drew his attention away from his new captive. 

“Are you alright?” he asked quietly, forcing the man’s head down as she slowly raised hers.

“M-Mr. Ogami?” she groaned as her eyes finally focused on his. “Did you get him?”

“Yeah. You did well holding him off as long as you did. Thank you, Hiwatashi.”

The fox managed a wry grin as several more of her  _ actual _ security detail rounded the corner, tasers ready and looking vaguely panicked, only to relax at the sight of their charge pushing herself upright and brushing off her skirt with a grim smile. 

“I  _ really  _ need a costume change now,” she muttered, then turned a cold, dark glare on her would-be kidnapper. “Now, we can find Michiru.”


	5. Abîme d'oiseaux

It felt like sleep never failed to elude Michiru these days. She was too tense. Too afraid. She did manage to drift off on occasion, but her sleep was fitful at best and every time she managed it, nightmares, electric shocks, a squeal of metal hinges, or the pinch of a needle getting stuck in her arm woke her a short while later. The combination made for a perpetually exhausted state that left her without the energy to do much of anything besides shiver in the cold and occasionally drag herself to the corner of the cage where a literal dog bowl had been laid out with water. She could hardly even manage  _ that, _ however. Whatever drug they were pumping her with to limit her ability to transform also acted as some kind of muscle relaxant, and regaining voluntary movement felt something like pins and needles lancing through her bones. So considering that they kept sticking her with the drug every few hours, she couldn’t really move for most of the time and it was a painful process for the rest. Even so, Michiru knew that she needed to stay hydrated if she was to have any chance of making it out of this alive, especially since they hadn’t given her any food since she had arrived, so she persevered regardless.

Honestly, she had no idea how many days it had been since she was first captured; she’d been too in and out for the first while and there were no windows in the room. To add insult to injury, her captors never even had the courtesy to turn the lights off at night. That meant the only things she had to measure her captivity by were the regular shots that she received--one every two and a half hours or so, if she had counted correctly, right as the drug was starting to wear off. Still, she couldn’t move very quickly, nor very steadily by that time, so most of the guards felt safe leaving her cage door open while they renewed the drug in her system.

It was that realization that gave Michiru the beginnings of an idea. 

Somewhere around the twentieth shot that the tanuki girl was given (she had lost track of the exact number somewhere along the way), she began her own little tests, mentally straining against the unresponsiveness of her own limbs and the block on her powers. By the twenty-third shot, she had determined that if she worked on it, she started regaining mobility about twenty-five minutes before the drug was readministered. About ten minutes before, she could transform again (not full-body transformations--something Nazuna had been working with her on--but partial ones). About ten minutes  _ after  _ it was administered, she would lose all movement and transformation ability once more. 

She’d had to be careful about testing her limits, though. Just because she didn’t see her captors very often did not mean that she was left to her own devices. Someone was always watching to punish her every time her lips so much as moved, just in case it meant she was about to speak. On the other hand, humming or making other small noises didn’t do anything, so it seemed the collar itself wasn’t what was responding to the noise. Still, ‘human error’ then meant that she occasionally got zapped for no reason at all, and depending on the cruelty of her minder, the intensity and duration of the shock varied. It left a mental layer of exhaustion on top of the physical, never being able to guess when she was going to be electrocuted next or how bad it would be when it happened. 

That being said, she at least was able to confirm that there was only one person watching her at a time. When she tested her transformation ability, she was able to bring her knees up to her chest, tucking her face against her legs as she changed her muzzle from a tanuki’s to a wolf’s. From there, she was able to use her training from Shirou to read the scent trails and determine that there was a small observation room next to the one where she was being held, where someone sat in front of a computer with a small box in hand at all times. That same person would then rise to their feet when it was time, grab a new syringe, and come give her a shot until they were relieved. 

That meant whenever she was being ‘treated’, there was no one on guard, and  _ that  _ meant she had an opening. It was a tiny window of opportunity and there was no guarantee that it would work, especially given her weakened state, but she had to do  _ something;  _ she’d never really been a damsel-in-distress type of girl. 

It was the twenty-ninth shot when she decided to put her plan into action. She had shifted into wolf-muzzle form again, using the scent trails to watch as her guard left the shock box on the desk in the little office, where he wouldn’t be able to access it once she started moving. As a bonus, this guy was a pretty flabby fellow, so hopefully he wouldn’t be too hard to take down, and she couldn’t smell too many people out in the hall. She wasn’t adept enough with her scents to map out the building the way Shirou could, but it seemed like the best opportunity she would have for awhile.

Michiru’s minder walked in grumbling under his breath as he prepared the syringe and fumbled with the keys of her cage. “Alrigh’ beastie, time for your shot. Jus’ remember no sudden movements and it’ll be over quickly,” he sighed heavily, opening the cage door and bending over to grab her arm.

Michiru threw all of her energy into her next move, twisting her body so that she could kick as hard as she could between the man’s legs. She heard a yelp before the man slumped to one side, groaning with the pain as the tanuki girl shakily pushed herself to her knees and used the bars of her cage to drag herself to her feet.

“St-top… there,” the man squeaked.

_ Yeah, keep dreaming.  _ Ignoring her captor for the moment, Michiru staggered out of her cage, already panting for breath. She really hadn’t counted on how stiff her muscles would be after mostly lying on the floor for days on end. If she couldn’t walk, then this whole ‘escaping’ thing might prove to be a moot point.

Forcing herself to calm down, she let her power ripple across her body, morphing her fur and skin into a chameleon’s to blend into her surroundings (it was the only real advantage being nude gave her--she wasn’t wearing any clothes to break up her camouflage). The effort nearly knocked her out on its own, but she managed to remain standing, clutching the open door of the room and gasping for breath, her head swimming and her body still trembling. Just her luck that she took her first step out of the room right as she realized that she probably should’ve taken the man’s phone.

“B-Boss,” the man groaned, sending Michiru spinning around and very nearly toppling off-balance on her weakened legs. “The t-tanuki got ou’.”

_ Crap! _

An alarm of some kind started ringing a second later, striking Michiru’s sensitive ears like a bullhorn. Well, the damage was obviously done, so the girl didn’t bother wasting time trying to silence him. She just pushed forward, taking a right and heading towards the stairs as quickly as she could even as around a dozen men from a lower floor rushed up them. Michiru pressed herself flat against the wall, holding her breath and closing her eyes until she sensed that they had passed. It seemed that there were more men downstairs than up, then. She wasn’t certain if she would be able to sneak past them. Maybe she could find a window instead? She probably couldn’t morph wings at this point, but she could at least use her tail to cushion the fall- 

“You shouldn’t underestimate the eyes of a falcon.”

Michiru twisted, eyes wide in surprise as someone grabbed her wrist. The young beastman caught sight of a man with long black sleeves and red flight goggles strapped to the top of his head before her arm was suddenly twisted behind her back and she was driven to the ground, slammed to the floor and pinned with the weight of a knee in her back. Michiru felt herself cry out in pain, choking and gasping for breath as she struggled weakly beneath the man with ‘the eyes of a falcon’. 

_ Meteor. _

“It was a nice try, brat, but give it up.”

“Let me- Agh!!”

The man on top of her swore, releasing her and stumbling back as the shock collar activated, ripping another scream from Michiru’s throat. It was worse than the other shocks she’d had, bad enough that she actually blacked out for at least a few seconds. 

“-should’ve let me know first.”

“I would have thought an assassin of  _ your  _ reputation would have been more aware of your surroundings,” a horribly familiar voice sneered. Michiru’s eyes flickered weakly open, and she recognized the woman that had been in her prison when she first woke up. Michiru shakily turned her head to an angle where she could glare at the woman as she turned her cruel smirk on her.

_ “You witch,” _ Michiru hissed between her teeth. Or at least, she tried to. For some reason, she couldn’t seem to actually say the words, but she bared her teeth all the same, determined to express the sentiment with her glare alone. Considering the way that the woman’s eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in fury, the message must have gotten across.

“It seems you have yet to learn your lesson, my  _ pet. _ It looks like the feral little tanuki needs to be  _ declawed  _ once and for all.”


	6. Danse de la fureur

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads-up, I may be slow posting the next chapter; I've had to host a bridal shower and move this week, so I haven't had nearly as much time to write as I normally do. 
> 
> Enjoy!

From his vantage point some fifteen yards away, Shirou glowered down on the building that their captive’s information had led them to. Turning an office building into a headquarters was hardly an original play, nor was it necessarily a bad one, but no matter what their defenses may be like, they wouldn’t do much good against him. He closed his eyes, morphing and breathing in deeply, tracing the scent trails. He couldn’t penetrate everything from this position, but he could sense the mixture of human and beastman police forming a perimeter around the building--including Chief Tachiki; Shirou wasn’t certain how Mayor Rose had managed to pull that one off, but having someone familiar with his detective style was something of a relief--along with anyone and everyone near the outer walls of the terrorist complex. And coiled up in the middle of it all, faint but undeniable… 

_Michiru._

_“Ogami, what did you find?”_ Tachiki’s voice crackled over his earpiece.

“Intel’s good,” Shirou replied quietly. “I can’t tell her exact position, but Michiru’s definitely somewhere in that building.”

_“Guards?”_

“I count around twenty positioned around the main entryway on the bottom floor, with more at every window big enough to admit a person, all well-armed.”

_“I’m assuming that’s not counting the guards on any of the upper floors.”_

“No, although from this distance it’s also difficult for me to make out any details within the building either.”

_“That’s more than expected. I suppose when their man failed to kidnap Hiwatashi they must have brought in more man-power.”_

“Most likely.”

_“Pingua, any other information to share?”_

_“Negative,”_ the albatross beastman’s voice came over the connection. _“The other buildings seem to be clear of any terrorists. This is their only stronghold.”_

_“In that case, what do you two suggest?”_

Shirou paused, thoughtful. “I think a small infiltration team would be best. Get in, get Michiru, and get out before a full assault is made. It’s the surest way to keep her out of the line of fire.”

_“I presume you would be leading that team?_ _How would you get in?”_

For a moment, Shirou considered saying that he could just jump to the other building’s roof, and while he probably could, such an action would likely attract attention from unwanted eyes. If he wanted this to be an effective stealth operation, then he would need the help of someone with greater capabilities in that regard than he had. “Pingua, what do you think of an aerial drop?”

_“Sure. I’m pretty sure I could get you up there without anyone noticing.”_

“Good. Then do you think that the two of us could find Michiru and get her out on our own?”

_“Hm. I believe so. With your nose guiding us, we could feasibly avoid an encounter with the enemy altogether, and the fewer on the infiltration team the better to avoid detection.”_

“My thoughts exactly,” Shirou nodded, a grim smile twisting his lips. 

_“Very good then,”_ Tachiki broke back in. _“I’ll get the plan approved.”_

The half hour that crawled by while their plan was presented to the human policemen in charge of the raid was sheer _torture._ After four days of hell, Michiru was _finally_ within Shirou’s reach, and yet he was being forced to wait _again._ Normally, he could stand by and be patient until the opportune moment, just like he had with the beastman traffickers, but today he found himself pacing back and forth across the rooftop, already morphed, ears twitching in all directions in response to even the slightest of sounds, his fingers curling and uncurling in agitation. 

When had Michiru come to mean so much to him? He knew when he had realized it: the moment he came out of the fog of Nyrvasil Syndrome and found her lying unconscious and bloody by his fangs. The sense of horror, grief, and utter anguish that had nearly consumed him in that moment left him in little doubt that Michiru had become far more than just another comrade. But when had it _happened?_ He’d asked himself that many times but never been able to come up with a satisfactory answer. Was it that moment backstage when she had pleaded with him to let her in--to help her understand him? Or had it been as far back as the day she went to the mainland with Flip’s daughter, when that strange pang of loss at the thought of never seeing her again had flashed through his chest before he dismissed it as irritation at having to clean up yet another one of her messes? Or was there a moment at all? Maybe it had been a more gradual takeover, like the rising of the tide. So smooth and silent under the crashing of the waves Michiru insisted on making that by the time he realized he was stranded, it was far too late to swim for shore. 

The wolf beastman sighed quietly, glancing towards the morning sun. _She really is something._

_“Ogami, Pingua, we’ve been approved,”_ Tachiki announced, sending a thrill of readiness up Shriou’s spine. _“As soon as you have Miss Michiru in custody, let us know so that we can begin our assault.”_

“Understood,” Shirou growled softly, allowing his fangs to show as Pingua landed beside him, looking grim but determined.

“Are you ready?” he asked. 

The wolf beastman didn’t really feel a need to reply.

They landed in almost complete silence on the enemy base, Pingua morphing back to his human form and drawing a pistol from its holster on his belt. Shirou maintained his transformation, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. The rooftop staircase was barren of guards-- _Honestly, did these people never even think to consider the possibility of aerial beastmen?_ \--and the rest of the top floor seemed similarly devoid of people. It seemed far too good to be true. Was it a trap? He sniffed again, visualizing the patterns of movement. No scent trail stayed in this area for long before heading for another area of the building. That meant they likely kept the top floor mainly for storage, a place where people came and went but rarely lingered. Perhaps that was why there didn’t appear to be any guards. “Come on.”

Shirou led the way floor by floor, pausing in the stairwell above each to scent-map the place while Pingua covered their rear and helped keep an eye out for the occasional security camera they had to sneak by. The lower they went, the harder it became to avoid detection. Around the seventh floor, a guard rounded a corner while they were caught in the open, so they were forced to knock him out and shove him in a little-used janitor’s closet. On the fifth floor, the wolf’s ears suddenly snapped up.

“No,” he gasped, eyes wide.

“What’s happened?” Pingua murmured, his voice urgent.

“She’s screaming,” Shirou whispered, hardly even aware of the words. _“Michiru!”_

“Ogami, wait!” the albatross hissed, grabbing his wrist before he could dash away.

_"̢͡Do̷͟n̡҉'̷t͡ ̛͞t̵̴͢r̷y͏̡͢ ̸t̸o̴ ͢st̴͜͞ơ̵p ͏̛m̕͡e͡!̢̧͟"̷͢_

“You can’t rush in! If you do, you’ll only put Michiru in more danger!” That caused the wolf to pause, as much as he hated the delay. “We can’t fight off their whole army _and_ keep Michiru safe! Not to mention that if they hear you coming, they could use her as a shield and potentially escape! Then even if we _do_ save the kid, she’ll _still_ be in danger! They’re not going to kill her now. We have to do this carefully or risk losing her forever.”

Shirou’s hackles didn’t lower, but some of the red did fade from his view. Gritting his teeth, he nodded and continued to lead the way towards the third floor, where Michiru’s cry of pain had echoed from. If Pingua noticed that he was still moving significantly faster than he had been before, he decided not to comment on it. Still, as they finally arrived on the third floor, another anguished scream very nearly broke his resolve and sent him sprinting towards her once again.

“What’s the layout?” Pingua’s voice prompted sharply, grounding him.

Shirou didn’t answer for a moment, closing his eyes as he visualized his scent map. There were conference rooms lining the hallways on this floor of varying sizes and styles, but only one held his attention. “Third door down on the left,” he whispered tautly. “They’re… They’re keeping Michiru in a large cage in the middle of the room. There are three others. A human woman standing in front of the cage, a human man to the right of the door, and Meteor, standing in the far right corner.”

“Weapons?”

“The human man has a katana. Meteor has two pistols. The woman is holding something in her hand. It doesn’t look like a weapon exactly, but I can’t rule out the possibility.”

“Plan?”

“I’m the fastest of the two of us. I’ll take them down before any shots can be fired to alert the rest of the building. Can you follow up to disarm?”

“Of course.”

“Then let’s move.”

Shirou threw the door open right as Michiru started screaming again. Three heads immediately snapped towards him, but before anyone could even react, the wolf beastman had seized the wrist of the man by the door and thrown him across the room directly into the human woman, knocking her to the floor as well. Meteor had his handgun out by then, but before he could get off a shot, Shirou was on him, seizing his wrist and twisting it sharply to force him to release the weapon while driving another fist into the falcon’s stomach, sending him doubling over with a sharp wheeze of pain. 

“You again?!” Meteor choked as the wolf dragged him to the ground, digging his knee into the traitorous beastman’s back as he unholstered the second pistol and tossed it aside. Then he slammed another punch into the assassin’s temple, knocking him out cold. He waited only a moment to be sure that the falcon was out before he rushed towards the cage. 

“Michiru!” he cried frantically.

His breath hitched, his eyes wide in horror.

Michiru was convulsing, her muscles locked, her body twisted unnaturally, and her turquoise eyes wide as she intermittently screamed and gulped unsuccessfully for air. 

_What’s happening to her?!_

Pingua swore violently. “Ogami, the box!” he cried as he wrestled the man for his katana.

_Box?_ The wolf’s gray eyes flew around the room to where the woman was struggling to regain her feet, and next to her was a small black box with a dial. Shirou grabbed the device and blindly turned the dial to the ‘off’ marking, at which point he heard a trembling gasp from within the cage. When he looked back, the tanuki girl had gone limp, huddled against the floor, utterly still save for the involuntary shudders coursing through her.

“You!!” Shirou snarled, instinctively morphing as he grabbed the woman by her lapels and dragged her to her feet, only to slam her against the wall. _“What the hell did you do to her?!”_

“Get off of me you beast, unless you want some of the same!” the woman spat back at him. “All you animals deserve to be kept on a leash!”

 _"Y͘͝ou͏̸̶'r͢e ̶̡n̶̨ot̵͜ ̨a̸͡͞n̴s̶͟w̢͞ȩ̶r̕ing̵̕ ̕m̨͠y̴͘ q̨ues͏̷ti͠o̶n̶̢͢!̕͟!"̢͠_ the wolf snarled, feeling the scar at his throat pulse in time with his heartbeat. _̵̧̡"̷W҉̢h̢at͠҉ ͡҉di̢҉̡d͘͟͞ ̷͘͏y̕̕ou ̨d͢o̸ ̸t͠o͜ ̷̷h̨e̷r̛͞?!̕͢"_

“She was electrocuting her,” Pingua interrupted, his voice a low growl as he took the box and glowered at it with a mixture of horror and absolute revulsion. “This is a control device for a military grade shock collar. The terrorists I fought back in my youth used them.”

Rage boiled in Shirou’s blood. The scar across his throat _burned_ as his breathing picked up. Everything seemed tinted in red. He could _hear_ the voices of his two thousand fallen comrades from Nyrvasil, chanting in the back of his mind as their strength flowed into his limbs. In that moment, the only instinct louder than the snarl of _destroy_ was the howl of _protect._

The woman paled as a sound akin to a roar built in Shirou's throat, still struggling uselessly as his grip tightened, then screamed as her collarbone _snapped_ beneath the pressure of his fist. The wolf barely even heard Pingua’s colorful stream of curses as he tossed her aside and ran to the cage, _ripping_ off the door and flinging it across the room. Then he rushed to Michiru’s side, frantically crying out her name as he reached towards her.

The girl flinched away from his hand so violently that Shirou himself recoiled in surprise, his eyes wide as she huddled as far away from him as possible when she could barely move, whimpering wordlessly. She… She was in even worse shape than he had initially realized.

Stripped of clothing, the girl looked thin; even after only four days, it was obvious that she’d lost weight. Her teal hair had been shorn close to her scalp, and what was left of it was lank and greasy. Her fur, especially around her hands, was stained brown with filth and dried blood, her body littered with bruises, and a thin line of saliva was coating her trembling chin. She was barely even breathing, every gasp small, shallow, and pained, no doubt in large part due to the thick black collar hooked up with an equally black box and cinched tight around her neck.

“Michiru,” Shirou crooned softly, forcing the fury out of his voice. “Michiru, it’s me. It’s Shirou.”

Her ears twitched slightly at that pronouncement. Slowly, likely painfully, Michiru lifted her head, and his heart nearly broke all over again at the sight of her eyes, once so bright and vibrant, now dull and glazed and rimmed with circles even darker than the ones under his own. Still, just the smallest bit of life seemed to return to them as she focused on the hand still partially extended towards her, half-covered in a black glove with fur protruding at the wrist. When she finally lifted her gaze to meet his, tears flooded her eyes and her fingers groped blindly towards him. 

It was all the permission he needed.

Shirou swept her into his arms in an instant, burrowing his nose in her hair and drinking in her scent as he cradled her close to his chest. Michiru cried soundlessly as she clung to him with one hand, the other grappling at the shock collar still cinched tight around her throat, her mouth open as though she were trying to speak but couldn’t. The wolf beastman shifted her carefully so that he could extend one delicate claw towards it, slicing straight through the evil device and tossing it aside. The moment it was removed, Michiru took a slow, shuddering gasp, like it was the first real breath she had taken the entire time that she had been missing. Then, in a voice cracked and broken with pain, dryness and disuse, she whispered his name.

“Sh-Shi… ro… u…”

“Michiru.”

As he pulled her impossibly closer, cocooning her in his arms, Shirou knew that he'd never hated humans as much as he did in that moment. Because it wasn’t until _that moment,_ as Michiru sobbed desperately with her face buried in his chest, fingers bleeding where her little claws had been snipped down to the beds, and skin hot with a fever even though she wouldn't stop shivering, that he realized just how _small_ she really was. 

Considering how strong and confident Michiru had always seemed, it was a sobering discovery.


	7. Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry this has taken so long! Long story short, after a crazy week involving a move, a bridal shower, and a new job that is taking up way more of my free time than I would like, I finally got the chapter written, but when I reread it, I just... didn't like it. So I'm going off-outline now and although I'm liking it way more, I now am not sure where or how this is going to end. So. Wish me luck. 
> 
> Enjoy!

It was the moment Michiru felt the collar fall away from her neck that she began to dare to hope that any of this might be real, and not some hallucination her mind had conjured up to escape the agony. That _thing_ had been a constant presence from the very moment she had woken up, constricting her air flow, reminding her that she was a _monster,_ a beast to be captured and kept on display. With it gone, she was able to take her first full breath in what felt like decades. There was only one way to know for sure, though. Only one way to be certain that she hadn’t gone completely mad from the horrors she had been subjected to. Summoning up every ounce of strength she had left, she whispered a single word:

“Sh-Shi… ro… u…” 

The tanuki girl couldn’t quite stop the sob that forced itself out of her throat as she realized that _there was no shock._ She had been able to speak, and _nothing had hurt her._

_This is real._

_“Michiru,”_ Shirou whispered in turn, his voice rumbling soothingly alongside her ear as his arms tightened around her, clutching her to him just as fiercely as he had the day he had thrown himself off of the top of the Sylvasta Medical Center to save her. 

_This is_ real. _Shirou is here and he’s_ real.

Michiru felt light-headed with relief--or maybe that was the dehydration. She didn’t know and she didn’t care. She just pressed herself as close to Shirou as possible, no longer caring about the tears pouring down her cheeks or the possibility of looking weak to her captors. 

She didn't have to be strong anymore. 

“I hate to interrupt,” someone called, “but I can hear shouting. That crash must have alerted the guards.” 

Michiru twitched slightly at the familiar voice, lifting her head in confusion. “M-Mr. Ping-?”

Her inquiry devolved into a round of coughing before she could finish. Her head throbbed in response; she saw black spots in front of her eyes and clung to consciousness by sheer force of will--Michiru couldn’t afford to slow Shirou and Mr. Pingua down now. Briefly, she felt Shirou’s arms tighten protectively around her, then he pulled away on one side, shifting as he removed his ever-present coat and wrapped it around her instead. “I know it’s not much, but it’s something,” he murmured, reaching to grab something off the floor before lifting her off the ground.

“I c-can wa-”

“Don’t even think about it,” Shirou cut Michiru off before another coughing fit could do it for him. “Save your strength. You wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pace we’ll need anyway.” 

Michiru grumbled softly, but she couldn’t really fight him on that point. As much as she _wanted_ to be able to walk, her earlier escape attempt proved that she wasn’t as capable as she wished she were.

Besides, she was still in a lot more pain than she cared to admit.

A gunshot pulled a startled yelp from Michiru’s lips; it was all she could do not to hide her face in Shirou’s shoulder. A moment later, Pingua quickly pulled back from where he had been peering around the corner the same way that policemen do in TV shows. “Yeah, the guards know we’re here,” he grumbled, drawing his pistol and bringing a hand to his ear. “Tachiki, we have Miss Michiru, but our cover’s been blown.” He paused, presumably listening to a response. “Well-”

“No, start the assault,” Shirou interrupted. “We’ll make it out alright on…”

“We will?” Pingua frowned.

“Yes. …need a distraction. Pingua, how many are there?” 

“At…? About half a dozen. Probably… the time we figure out a way out of here.”

“Already done… The room across from us and to the… enough window for us to get through.”

“I don’t… both of you, not to mention there’s still the matter…”

“Just take Michiru and wait… see you chance, get out.”

“Wait, what?!” the albatross protested as Shirou passed the tanuki girl to him, brandishing a gun in one hand. Michiru frowned as Mr. Pingua hoisted her awkwardly in his arms. When had Shirou gotten a gun? Had he always had it? And why did he want them to wait? Her mind felt foggy; everyone’s voices were fading in and out of her perception. 

_Stay awake, Michiru._

“Wait, Ogami-!”

Michiru blinked and suddenly Shirou wasn’t standing by the door like he had been. She could hear shouting. Gunfire. Pingua cursing angrily. A roar. A scream.

_Shirou…_

“Pingua!”

The tanuki girl jolted back into awareness as they were suddenly moving, Mr. Pingua rushing forward and out the door of her prison, then taking a hard right and sprinting down the hall. Michiru managed to force her eyes open long enough to look back over his shoulder, where she saw Shirou in wolf form gripping someone’s wrist and holding it in the air so that they fired uselessly into the ceiling, his teeth bared in a snarl and his eyes glinting red, his fur splattered with blood in places, although she didn’t know if it was his or the terrorists’. 

_He looks… almost like-_

Then they burst through another set of doors and she lost sight of him. Michiru groaned softly, her aching body throbbing in pain once again as Mr. Pingua released her partway. He still supported her weight with one arm, but freed the other to fire a series of shots at the wide window with his handgun, close enough to her ear to make her flinch in surprise, turning instinctively back towards the door.

Red goggles. Teeth bared in fury. A glint of silver. 

“No!” Michiru yelled, instinctively shoving Mr. Pingua out of the way.

Another bang. 

A split second of blank shock as she stared at the crimson rose blossoming across her stomach in stark contrast to Shirou’s white coat. 

Then she collapsed.

_“M̛̛i̴̧̛c͜͝hi̕͢r̴u̧!̵̵҉!̧͞”_

A roar. A pop. A scream. A crash.

“Michiru!”

_“Michiru!”_

Michiru groaned against the pressure weighing down on her stomach. If she were being honest, she expected it to hurt more, but after being electrocuted on the daily, a bullet wound was just a more concentrated throbbing than what she was used to. Then again, maybe the lack of feeling had more to do with the darkness closing around her than the actual intensity of the pain itself. She was a little surprised when she could still feel the large hand gently cup her face, a low voice urgently calling her name once again. The tanuki girl managed to force her eyes open one more time, seeing familiar, terrified gray eyes. 

A small, wan smile curled the corner of her mouth. 

_I'm s_ _orry… Shirou…_


	8. Desperate Measures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my word, I am SO sorry this has taken so long to update!! I'll do my absolute best to get the last chapter (or two? Maybe?) out in the next week or so! Sorry for the long wait and thank you all so much for your patience!!

_ “Michiru!”  _ Shirou cried again as the tanuki girl’s eyes finally rolled back and she went completely limp. She was still she was  _ too still;  _ Michiru was bright and vibrant and  _ alive, _ and now she was still and cold and red and it was his fault  _ all his fault her blood was in his mouth and he could hear them screaming and Hiwatashi was sobbing and everyone was screaming and he couldn’t stop it he couldn’t save them he couldn’t save  _ her-!!

_ “Ogami!” _ Pingua snapped, golden eyes boring into him with an intensity unlike anything he had seen from the man previously. Some part of Shirou’s mind disconnected from the current situation wondered if this might be a glimpse into the man’s past as a military man. “Stay calm!” the albatross beastman ordered, his voice a lifeline of calm in a tumultuous sea of panic. “We can still save her, but we have to move fast. I need you to barricade the door to prevent any more surprises, then help me with first aid. Can you do that?”

Shirou stared at him blankly for another millisecond before the screams in the back of his mind faded and he pulled himself back together. While Pingua updated Tachiki on the situation, the wolf sprang to his feet and slammed the door shut, then grabbed the conference table in the middle of the room and shoved it against the entryway. He spared a brief glance for the stunned and unconscious Meteor-- _ Pretty sure I shattered both of his arms when I lost control earlier; I doubt the bastard will ever fly again _ \--before he returned to Michiru’s side and looked to Pingua for instructions.

“I need you to put pressure on the wound,” the albatross beastman directed him, guiding his hands into place. Shirou felt his breathing increase in speed as he vacillated over the injury; he was so much stronger than an average beastman and she was so  _ small _ he might hurt her  _ he hurt her all that blood it was his fault-  _

“Ogami, breathe,” Pingua reminded him forcefully.

_ Right. Breathe. I can do that. _

Shirou watched as the albatross beastman swiftly untied the white scarf around his neck and pulled off his leather flight jacket. He morphed briefly, using his sharp beak to tear his black undershirt and rip off the bottom half of the torso, then he swiftly folded the piece of cloth into a simple pad and placed it over the wound, having Shirou lift Michiru up enough for him to tie the cloth firmly into place with his scarf. “She’s still losing a lot of blood. Tachiki has an ambulance prepped, but they’re not going to clear a path for us quickly enough. We need another exit,” he muttered.

“I’m on it,” Shirou grunted, rising to his feet once again and marching to the window.

“I don’t know if that will do us any good,” the albatross beastman called. “While I could certainly carry her to the ambulance, gripping her with my talons in this state may just hurt her more.”

“I’ll carry her out, then,” Shirou growled, winding up and smashing the weakened glass to pieces, easily opening up a space wide enough for two people. 

“From three stories up?! You’ll get the both of you killed!”

“Just trust me,” the wolf beastman snapped back, scooping Michiru into his arms.

“Ogami, you’re not thinking straight-!”

“Pingua,” Shirou interrupted, looking the man directly in the eyes. “I know what I’m doing. Trust me to know my own strength.”

A long silence-- _ too long; Michiru doesn’t have time for this! _ \--passed between them. Finally, Pingua sighed and stepped out of the way. “I’ll escort you both to the ambulance, just in case.”

“Let’s not waste anymore time then.”

Shirou held Michiru tightly to his chest-- _ her blood was sticky on his hands he could feel it soaking through his shirt _ \--as he jumped from the window, parkouring back and forth off the building across the street in order to slow his descent until he landed lightly on ground level. It was a little harder than it would’ve been if he’d been able to use his hands, but he hadn’t had a thousand years of practice for nothing.

“That went smoother than I would’ve thought possible,” Pingua admitted as he swooped overhead, sounding begrudgingly impressed. Shirou didn’t bother responding. He put all of his attention into his speed, quickly outstripping his the albatross on the way to the ambulance, the both of them pointedly ignoring the sounds of shouting and the popping of bullet fire within the building. In fact, he moved so quickly that one of the paramedics actually yelped in surprise when he seemed to appear out of thin air next to them.

“M-Mr. Ogami! Did you-? Oh my God!”

“Bring her this way! Quickly!”

It took all of Shirou’s willpower not to snarl as one of the doctors began to pull Michiru away from him, lowering her onto the gurney. He had to remind himself that these people didn’t mean the girl any harm and that they were her only chance for survival now. Still, as the paramedics started loading her onto the ambulance, he climbed in with her, silencing any protest with no more than a glare.

They weren’t even halfway to the hospital when things went horribly wrong.

“Her heartrate is decreasing; what do her oxygen levels look like?!”

“Her oxygen levels are dropping rapidly; she’s lost too much blood and is entering hemorrhagic shock!”

“Why hasn’t she been hooked up to a blood bag yet?!”

“Because her genetic structure is too unique; we can’t be sure that it won’t cause a hemolytic reaction!” 

“That doesn’t matter if she dies anyway; get an IV now!”

“Yes sir!”

_ No…  _

Shirou’s breath came faster and faster with each piece of bad news, his panic building to a fever pitch, visions of a blood-soaked Nirvasyl and the ruins of Anima-City flashing in front of his eyes, the twin scents of blood and fear mixing into a vile perfume in his nostrils, his claws out and digging deeper and deeper into the metal bench as he fought the instinct to tear apart the  _ humans _ surrounding Michiru, his desperate need to  _ protect _ swallowed by an all-consuming sense of panic and helplessness.

“Dammit, she’s flatlined! Get the AED!”

_ No! _

He dug his claws deeper as he watched them pull open the coat he’d wrapped around her, reminding himself that they were not the same as the humans that had been hurting her before. It was even harder to hear one paramedic yell ‘Clear’ and watch Michiru’s body lurch due to an electric shock before one of the doctors started administering CPR. 

“She’s not stabilizing! We’re losing her!”

_ No no no no no!! _

Not responding she’s  _ not responding  _ they’re  _ losing her he was losing her she’s dying she’s dying and he can’t save her even after everything she’d done for him even after she’d saved him with her own blood he couldn’t save… her… _

_ Blood.  _

Her blood. It saved him from Nirvasyl Syndrome. Gave him antibodies. Immunity.

And his blood…

_ His _ ‘immunity’… 

Shirou rose to his feet, tugging off his right glove in one swift movement. One of the paramedics yelled at him to sit back down, but he barely even registered their voice through the pounding in his ears, the distant chanting pulsing in time with his heartbeat. Pushing the humans aside, the wolf beastman morphed and sank one of his incisors into his exposed thumb, causing his blood to well up from a small but deep wound, then gently lifted Michiru’s head and let the crimson liquid--a sharp contrast to her pale blue lips--spill into her mouth.

For an eternal moment, all was still.

Then a silver-blue light flooded the back of the ambulance in tandem with her first surge of renewed breath.


End file.
